1. Technical Field
This invention is related to display stands, and, more particularly, to lightweight, portable display stands that may be readily assembled and disassembled without tools.
2. Prior Art
Display stands for exhibiting, among other things, merchandise or other items (together “merchandise”) have been in wide use for many years. Various types of display stands are commonly seen in retail stores such as supermarkets, hardware stores, discount stores, and a multitude of other locations. Display stands may be permanent, semi-permanent, or temporary in nature.
Display stands typically include a perforated, slotted, or gridded support panel configuration that is oriented in a vertical direction, with the front of the panel facing the intended viewers. Perforated, slotted, or gridded vertical panels commonly include slatwall, gridwall, slatgrid, pegboard, or other designs for vertical support panels.
Removable fixtures for exhibiting or displaying merchandise include hooks, braces, shelves, or brackets that are adapted to fit into the perforations, slots, or grids of, or wrap around the support features of, the vertical support panel in a manner wherein the hooks, braces, shelves, or brackets are supported by the vertical support panel. The removable fixtures generally extend more or less outwardly from the front of the vertical support panel. The removable fixtures may be used to exhibit or display the merchandise itself (such as when a hook fits through a hole in the products' packaging to support the package on the hook). Removable fixtures may also, in turn, support shelving, baskets, or other associated support fixtures or accessories (together “accessories”) that may be utilized to display merchandise.
The removable fixtures are commonly designed to be removable and re-arrangeable on the front of the vertical support panel of the display stand so as to promote flexibility in changing or refashioning the arrangement and appearance of merchandise displays.
While some display stands are permanent or semi-permanent, there is often a desire for at least some display stands at a given location to be temporary or portable, or both, in order to promote flexibility in the re-arrangement of the layout and configuration of display stands within the floorspace in that given location, or in multiple locations. Temporary and portable display stands are especially useful in promoting that flexibility.
Temporary and portable display stands are also especially desirable in environments where merchandise display stands are to be set up quickly, sometimes in locations far from the display stands' owner's usual location, displayed for a relatively short time, and then disassembled and removed quickly from that location, sometimes for transport and re-assembly elsewhere, and sometimes for transport and storage (short-term or long-term). The desirability of such temporary and portable display stands, for example, would exist for some display stands used at trade shows, craft shows, art shows, or conventions (together “trade shows”). In those instances, it is often very desirable that display stands be highly portable, be capable of being quickly and easily assembled (very preferably without tools, and with the display stand having minimal parts, to avoid separation and loss of or damage to or by those parts), be lightweight, be sturdy (to withstand the impact of the high volume of people accessing the displayed items at a trade show), be capable of being quickly and easily disassembled, and be easily and neatly packable, storable, and transportable in stored form. It is an unfortunate correspondence that prior art display stands that have been designed to promote portability and have lightweight structures generally are less sturdy, are prone to having many separable parts, and are often difficult to assemble or disassemble quickly (and require tools for such assembly and disassembly).